Electromagnetic compatibility remains an important topic in the design and manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Compatibility of these devices with their surroundings is becoming increasingly difficult as a modern PCB can have hundreds or thousands of parts, operating on many layers, and all at high speed. One such part is a via and its clearance, or via hole, commonly required in multilayer circuits where vertical connections between layers are used. The via hole may be exposed to large electromagnetic fields within the PCB. Although electrically small, the via hole provides a pathway for the fields to excite the exterior, either directly or through coupling to adjacent structures. To quantify this process, the near fields and radiation of an excited via hole are analysed, and are the focus of this thesis. The near fields of the via hole are first decoupled into electric and magnetic fields of the 'static' type. In both cases a series solution for two regions, one outside, and one inside the layers is constructed. The coefficients of the terms of the series are chosen to best satisfy the boundary behaviour of the fields on the conducting surfaces and across the hole. The criteria for assessing quality of the solution is based on the least squares method (LSM). Linear equation systems for both models are derived, and as no numerical integration or discretisation is required, an efficient and robust implementation to find the near fields is developed. Transformation into the far field is then achieved through surface integration of relevant field quantities close to the via hole. The far fields are best viewed as that due to two dipoles, of the magnetic and electric type, with strength and orientation depending on how the via hole is excited. It is shown that the two dipole model is sufficient to find the radiation from a 1mm diameter via hole at a frequency up to 8 GHz. Of further interest is how the choice of via hole dimensions affects the dipole moments and the near fields solved earlier are a key to this understanding.

We use standard general relativity to clarify common misconceptions about fundamental aspects of the expansion of the Universe. In the context of the new standard Lambda-CDM cosmology we resolve conflicts in the literature regarding cosmic horizons and the Hubble sphere (distance at which recession velocity equals c) and we link these concepts to observational tests. We derive the dynamics of a non-comoving galaxy and generalize previous analyses to arbitrary FRW universes. We also derive the counter-intuitive result that objects at constant proper distance have a non-zero redshift. Receding galaxies can be blueshifted and approaching galaxies can be redshifted, even in an empty universe for which one might expect special relativity to apply. Using the empty universe model we demonstrate the relationship between special relativity and Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology. We test the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSL) and its extension to incorporate cosmological event horizons. In spite of the fact that cosmological horizons do not generally have well-defined thermal properties, we find that the GSL is satisfied for a wide range of models. We explore in particular the relative entropic &quoteworth&quote of black hole versus cosmological horizon area. An intriguing set of models show an apparent entropy decrease but we anticipate this apparent violation of the GSL will disappear when solutions are available for black holes embedded in arbitrary backgrounds. Recent evidence suggests a slow increase in the fine structure constant over cosmological time scales. This raises the question of which fundamental quantities are truly constant and which might vary. We show that black hole thermodynamics may provide a means to discriminate between alternative theories invoking varying constants, because some variations in the fundamental &quoteconstants&quote could lead to a violation of the generalized second law of thermodynamics.

The documented decline of amphibian populations over the past two decades has increased attention towards amphibian conservation. Much of this attention has been focused on testing hypotheses as to the causal factors of these declines, however providing convincing data to support any of these hypotheses has proved difficult. The testing of these hypotheses and the implementation of endangered species recovery programs has been restricted by a lack of knowledge of the ecology and population demography of amphibian species that have suffered dramatic declines. This thesis presents aspects of the research phase of the recovery program for the Southern Corroboree Frog, Pseudophryne corroboree, a species that declined to very low numbers during the early 1980's. In particular, this research aimed to determine the distribution, abundance, population dynamics and demography of this rare species. A complete reassessment of the conservation status of P. corroboree was undertaken and the nature of the persistence of this species across the landscape was analysed. Temporal trends in abundance and its relationship with population size were also investigated. Early life-history survivorship and recruitment to metamorphosis were studied at the scale of individual nest sites and populations, and the adult male population age structure and annual mortality were investigated using skeletochronology. The shout/response survey technique was used to survey and monitor the number of breeding male P. corroboree during this study. This method was found to provide consistent results when the surveys were conducted over a short (two week) period during the peak breeding season in January. Neither time of day, nor the number of males present at a pool, was found to influence the level of responsiveness of male P. corroboree to the shout/response technique. Variation in the number of responding males to the shout/response technique through the breeding season, assessed at a single site over two seasons, was unimodal with the peak responding period occurring during the last two weeks of January during both the 1998 and the 1999 breeding seasons. A systematic survey covering 213 sites across the entire historic distribution of P. corroboree found this species to be persisting at 79 sites. The majority of these sites were in the northwestern portion of the species former range, around the Jagungal Wilderness area, while no extant sites were found in the south-eastern portion of the species former range in the Smiggin Holes and Perisher Blue ski resorts area. The overall abundance of males at persistent sites was extremely low, with 92 percent of sites having fewer than ten responding males. Only one site was found to support greater than fifty responding males. A logistic regression analysis found the persistence of P. corroboree to be associated with increased number of pools within a site, decreased distance to nearest extant population and geographic position (latitude and longitude) in the landscape. While annual variation was observed in the number of breeding males for individual sites, there was no overall trend for an increase or decrease in the number of males, regardless of population size. The average annual extinction rate for local populations was five percent during this study, with those populations becoming extinct having very few breeding males (between one and three) during the previous season. Embryonic and tadpole survivorship was monitored for individual nests at three sites across three years. Recruitment to metamorphosis for P. corroboree was characterised by high variation in survivorship between nest sites, populations and years, while overall recruitment for nest sites was skewed towards lower survivorship. Average nest survivorship to metamorphosis across all sites and years was ten percent but the skewed nature of this survivorship meant that the majority of nest sites attained very low or no survivorship. The low proportion of nest sites that did attain high survivorship provided the greatest contribution to overall recruitment. The levels of embryonic and tadpole mortality observed in this study would be providing a considerable contribution to the regulation of current population sizes. The greatest level of early life-history mortality was observed during the late autumn/winter egg and tadpole stage, with high survivorship during the summer and early autumn egg stage and the post-winter tadpole stage. The estimated sex ratio for seven populations, based on the number of eggs within male nest sites, indicated that for most populations, regardless of population size, there was a greater proportion of females to males. In general, the estimated sex ratio of smaller populations showed greater annual variation and had a lower average number of females to males than the single large population. Tadpole surveys conducted across remnant populations during both 1998 and 1999 found recruitment to metamorphosis to be very low for the majority of populations. A third of all populations during both years attained no recruitment to metamorphosis, with those populations that did attain recruitment typically having fewer than 20 tadpoles. While sites with more frogs generally recruited more tadpoles, there was no strong relationship between population size and the number of tadpoles recruited per male at the scale of either pool or site. There was also no significant difference in recruitment levels between the two years. Tadpole surveys across breeding pools within the single large population also found very low tadpole abundance. There was no strong relationship between the number of male frogs at a pool and the number of tadpoles per male and there was no significant difference in tadpole abundance between the two years. Based on the low density of males at pools and sites (typically less than five), and the skewed nature of nest survivorship identified from monitoring individual nest sites, it seems likely that both deterministic and stochastic factors are influencing recruitment levels in remnant populations of P. corroboree. This study determined that adult male P. corroboree could be accurately aged using the technique of skeletochronology, and this technique was used to determine the adult male population age structure for three populations. The results indicated that adult male P. corroboree can reach sexual maturity from metamorphosis in three years, but the majority of individuals take four years. The oldest individual identified in this study was nine years old from metamorphosis. The adult male age structure at the single large site showed very little annual variation, whereas the two smaller populations showed highly pulsed age structures from one year to the next. The size of adult males was found to be a poor predictor of age. Annual adult male survivorship, calculated by following cohorts from one year to the next, was 55 percent. Based on this calculation of annual adult male survivorship, it seems likely that the initial decline in P. corroboree involved increased levels of adult mortality. The results of this study indicate that the persistence of. corroboree in the wild is precarious in the short-term. For this reason, it is recommended that efforts be undertaken to secure this species ex situ. Attempts to increase population numbers in the wild would greatly benefit from determining the factor(s) that have caused the decline in this species, however, failure to do so should not preclude field experimental management aimed at developing technique to increase the size of remnant populations. This is because it is likely that small population stochasticity is contributing to the current regulation of population size and it is possible that the factors that caused the decline in this species cannot be removed from the environment.

The objective of this project was to evaluate methods to remediate a wood I-joist with a single, circular hole in the web while leaving utilities in place. The methods were experimentally evaluated with a full-scale bending test using four equally spaced point loads. There were three depths of joists with varying flange widths and two span lengths (4.88 m & 2.44 m). Failure modes for the long span joists without holes were in the flanges in either tension, compression or lateral buckling; but once a hole was introduced the majority were classified as shear failures. Effectiveness of the remediation was evaluated based on three criteria: strength, stiffness, and ease of installation/cost. The OSB collar patch was effective for 8 out of the 12 series tested. A maximum reduction of load from a joist with no hole to one with a hole was 49% for the long span and 58% for the short span. The OSB collar was not as effective in returning stiffness to the joists, but was easier to install and less expensive than the LSL patch. / Graduation date: 2013

This thesis summarizes a study of higher-dimensional distorted objects such as a distorted 5-dimensional Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole. It considers a particular type of distortion corresponding to an external, static distribution of matter and fields around this object. The corresponding spacetime can be presented in the generalized Weyl form which has an RxU(1)xU(1) group of isometries. This is a natural generalization of the 4-dimensional Weyl form which was presented in the paper by Emparan and Reall [1]. In the frame of this generalized Weyl form one can derive an exact analytic solution to the Einstein equations which describes the non-linear interaction of the black hole with external matter and gravitational fields. This research focuses on the effects of such interaction on the event horizon and the interior of the black hole. A similar study was presented in the papers [2] for 4-dimensional neutral black holes, where special duality relations between a neutral black hole horizon and singularity were derived. In relation to this work it is interesting to study which properties of distorted black holes remain present in the 5-dimensional case. This thesis also gives an investigation of the d-dimensional Fisher solution which represents a static, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat spacetime with a massless scalar field. This solution has a naked singularity. It is shown that the d-dimensional Schwarzschild-Tangherlini solution and the Fisher solution are dual to each other. [1] R. Emparan and H. S. Reall, Phys. Rev. D, 65, 084025 (2002). [2] V. P. Frolov and A. A. Shoom, Phys. Rev. D, 76, 064037 (2007).

Supermassive black holes are a fundamental component of the universe in general and of galaxies in particular. Almost every massive galaxy harbours a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in its center. Furthermore, there is a close connection between the growth of the SMBH and the evolution of its host galaxy, manifested in the relationship between the mass of the black hole and various properties of the galaxy's spheroid component, like its stellar velocity dispersion, luminosity or mass. Understanding this relationship and the growth of SMBHs is essential for our picture of galaxy formation and evolution. In this thesis, I make several contributions to improve our knowledge on the census of SMBHs and on the coevolution of black holes and galaxies. The first route I follow on this road is to obtain a complete census of the black hole population and its properties. Here, I focus particularly on active black holes, observable as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) or quasars. These are found in large surveys of the sky. In this thesis, I use one of these surveys, the Hamburg/ESO survey (HES), to study the AGN population in the local volume (z~0). The demographics of AGN are traditionally represented by the AGN luminosity function, the distribution function of AGN at a given luminosity. I determined the local (z<0.3) optical luminosity function of so-called type 1 AGN, based on the broad band B_J magnitudes and AGN broad Halpha emission line luminosities, free of contamination from the host galaxy. I combined this result with fainter data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and constructed the best current optical AGN luminosity function at z~0. The comparison of the luminosity function with higher redshifts supports the current notion of 'AGN downsizing', i.e. the space density of the most luminous AGN peaks at higher redshifts and the space density of less luminous AGN peaks at lower redshifts. However, the AGN luminosity function does not reveal the full picture of active black hole demographics. This requires knowledge of the physical quantities, foremost the black hole mass and the accretion rate of the black hole, and the respective distribution functions, the active black hole mass function and the Eddington ratio distribution function. I developed a method for an unbiased estimate of these two distribution functions, employing a maximum likelihood technique and fully account for the selection function. I used this method to determine the active black hole mass function and the Eddington ratio distribution function for the local universe from the HES. I found a wide intrinsic distribution of black hole accretion rates and black hole masses. The comparison of the local active black hole mass function with the local total black hole mass function reveals evidence for 'AGN downsizing', in the sense that in the local universe the most massive black holes are in a less active stage then lower mass black holes. The second route I follow is a study of redshift evolution in the black hole-galaxy relations. While theoretical models can in general explain the existence of these relations, their redshift evolution puts strong constraints on these models. Observational studies on the black hole-galaxy relations naturally suffer from selection effects. These can potentially bias the conclusions inferred from the observations, if they are not taken into account. I investigated the issue of selection effects on type 1 AGN samples in detail and discuss various sources of bias, e.g. an AGN luminosity bias, an active fraction bias and an AGN evolution bias. If the selection function of the observational sample and the underlying distribution functions are known, it is possible to correct for this bias. I present a fitting method to obtain an unbiased estimate of the intrinsic black hole-galaxy relations from samples that are affected by selection effects. Third, I try to improve our census of dormant black holes and the determination of their masses. One of the most important techniques to determine the black hole mass in quiescent galaxies is via stellar dynamical modeling. This method employs photometric and kinematic observations of the galaxy and infers the gravitational potential from the stellar orbits. This method can reveal the presence of the black hole and give its mass, if the sphere of the black hole's gravitational influence is spatially resolved. However, usually the presence of a dark matter halo is ignored in the dynamical modeling, potentially causing a bias on the determined black hole mass. I ran dynamical models for a sample of 12 galaxies, including a dark matter halo. For galaxies for which the black hole's sphere of influence is not well resolved, I found that the black hole mass is systematically underestimated when the dark matter halo is ignored, while there is almost no effect for galaxies with well resolved sphere of influence. / Supermassereiche Schwarze Löcher sind ein fundamentaler Bestandteil unseres Universims im Allgemeinen, und von Galaxien im Besonderen. Fast jede massereiche Galaxie beherbergt ein supermassereiches Schwarzes Loch in seinem Zentrum. Außerdem existiert eine enge Beziehung zwischen dem Wachstum des Schwarzen Loches und der Entwicklung seiner umgebenden Galaxie. Diese zeigt sich besonders in der engen Beziehung zwischen der Masse eines Schwarzen Loches und den Eigenschaften der sphäroidalen Komponente der Galaxie, beispielsweise seiner stellaren Geschwindigkeitsdispersion, seiner Leuchtkraft und seiner Masse. Diese Beziehung erklären zu können, sowie das Wachstum von Schwarzen Löchern zu verstehen, liefert einen wichtigen Beitrag zu unserem Bild der Entstehung und Entwicklung von Galaxien. In dieser Arbeit steuere ich verschiedene Beiträge dazu bei unser Verständnis des Vorkommens Schwarzer Löcher und der Beziehung zu ihren Galaxien zu verbessern. Zunächst versuche ich ein vollständiges Bild der Anzahl und Eigenschaften Schwarzer Löcher zu erhalten. Dazu beschränke ich mich auf aktive Schwarze Löcher, wie man sie im Universum als Aktive Galaxienkerne (AGN) in großen Himmelsdurchmusterungen finden kann. Ich benutze eine solche Durchmusterung, das Hamburg/ESO Survey (HES), um die AGN Population im lokalen Universum zu studieren. Dazu habe ich die optische Leuchtkraftfunktion von AGN bestimmt. Diese habe ich mit anderen Ergebnissen leuchtschwächerer AGN kombiniert um die bisher beste AGN Leuchtkraftfunktion im lokalen Universum zu erhalten. Der Vergleich mit Ergebnissen bei höherer kosmischer Rotverschiebung bestätigt unser Bild des sogenannten "AGN downsizing". Dies sagt aus, dass leuchtkräftige AGN bei hoher Rotverschiebung am häufigsten vorkommen, während leuchtschwache AGN bei niedriger Rotverschiebung am häufigsten sind. Allerdings verrät uns die AGN Leuchtkraftfunktion allein noch nicht das ganze Bild der Demographie Schwarzer Löcher. Vielmehr sind wir an den zugrunde liegenden Eigenschaften, vor allem der Masse und der Akkretionsrate der Schwarzen Löcher, sowie deren statistischen Verteilungsfunktionen, interessiert. Ich habe eine Methode entwickelt um diese beiden Verteilungsfunktionen zu bestimmen, basierend auf der Maximum-Likelihood-Methode. Ich habe diese Methode benutzt um die aktive Massenfunktion Schwarzer Löcher, sowie die Verteilungsfunktion ihrer Akkretionsraten für das lokale Universum aus dem HES zu bestimmen. Sowohl die Akkretionsraten, als auch die Massen der Schwarzen Löcher zeigen intrinsisch eine breite Verteilung, im Gegensatz zur schmaleren beobachtbaren Verteilung. Der Vergleich der aktiven Massenfunktion mit der gesamten Massenfunktion Schwarzer Löcher zeigt ebenfalls Hinweise auf "AGN downsizing". Als nächstes habe ich mich mit Untersuchungen zur zeitlichen Entwicklung in den Beziehungen zwischen Schwarzem Loch und Galaxie beschäftigt. Diese kann helfen unser theoretisches Veständnis der physikalischen Vorgänge zu verbessern. Beobachtungen sind immer auch Auswahleffekten unterworfen. Diese können die Schlussfolgerungen aus den Beobachtungen zur Entwicklung in den Beziehungen beeinflussen, wenn sie nicht entsprechend berücksichtigt werden. Ich habe den Einfluss von Auswahleffekten auf AGN Stichproben im Detail untersucht, und verschiedende möchgliche Einflussquellen identifiziert, die die Beziehung verfälschen können. Wenn die Auswahlkriterien der Stichprobe, sowie die zugrunde liegenden Verteilungen bekannt sind, so ist es möglich für die Auswahleffekte zu korrigieren. Ich habe eine Methode entwickelt, mit der man die intrinsische Beziehung zwischem Schwarzem Loch und Galaxie aus den Beobachtungen rekonstruieren kann. Schließlich habe ich mich auch inaktiven Schwarzen Löchern und der Bestimmung ihrer Massen gewidmet. Eine der wichtigsten Methoden die Masse Schwarzer Löcher in normalen Galaxien zu bestimmen ist stellardynamische Modellierung. Diese Methode benutzt photometrische und kinematische Beobachtungen, und rekonstruiert daraus das Gravitationspotenzial aus der Analyse stellarer Orbits. Bisher wurde in diesen Modellen allerdings der Einfluss des Halos aus Dunkler Materie vernachlässigt. Dieser kann aber die Bestimmung der Masse des Schwarzen Loches beeinflussen. Ich habe 12 Galaxien mit Hilfe stellardynamischer Modellierung untersucht und dabei auch den Einfluss des Halos aus Dunkler Materie berücksichtigt. Für Galaxien bei denen der Einflussbereich des Schwarzen Loches nicht sehr gut räumlich aufgelöst war, wird die Masse des Schwarzen Loches systematisch unterschätzt, wenn der Dunkle Materie Halo nicht berücksichtigt wird. Auf der anderen Seite ist der Einfluss gering, wenn die Beobachtungen diesen Einflussbereich gut auflösen können.

Diese Doktorarbeit behandelt neue Methoden der numerischen Evolution von Systemen mit binären Schwarzen Löchern. Wir analysieren und vergleichen Evolutionen von verschiedenen physikalisch motivierten Anfangsdaten und zeigen Resultate der ersten Evolution von so genannten 'Thin Sandwich' Daten, die von der Gruppe in Meudon entwickelt wurden. <br /> Zum ersten Mal wurden zwei verschiedene Anfangsdaten anhand von dreidimensionalen Evolutionen verglichen: die Puncture-Daten und die Thin-Sandwich Daten. Diese zwei Datentypen wurden im Hinblick auf die physikalischen Eigenschaften während der Evolution verglichen. <br /> Die Evolutionen zeigen, dass die Meudon Daten im Vergleich zu Puncture Daten wesentlich mehr Zeit benötigen bevor sie kollidieren. Dies deutet auf eine bessere Abschätzung der Parameter hin. Die Kollisionszeiten der numerischen Evolutionen sind konsistent mit unabhängigen Schätzungen basierend auf Post-Newtonschen Näherungen die vorhersagen, dass die Schwarzen Löcher ca. 60% eines Orbits rotieren bevor sie kollidieren. / This thesis presents new approaches to evolutions of binary black hole systems in numerical relativity. We analyze and compare evolutions from various physically motivated initial data sets, in particular presenting the first evolutions of Thin Sandwich data generated by the Meudon group. <br /> For the first time two different quasi-circular orbit initial data sequences are compared through fully 3d numerical evolutions: Puncture data and Thin Sandwich data (TSD) based on a helical killing vector ansatz. The two different sets are compared in terms of the physical quantities that can be measured from the numerical data, and in terms of their evolutionary behavior. <br /> The evolutions demonstrate that for the latter, "Meudon" datasets, the black holes do in fact orbit for a longer amount of time before they merge, in comparison with Puncture data from the same separation. This indicates they are potentially better estimates of quasi-circular orbit parameters. The merger times resulting from the numerical simulations are consistent with independent Post-Newtonian estimates that the final plunge phase of a black hole inspiral should take 60% of an orbit.

The network-mapping tool integrated with protein database search can be used for filling pathway holes. A metabolic pathway under consideration (pattern) is mapped into a known metabolic pathway (text), to find pathway holes. Enzymes that do not show up in the pattern may be a hole in the pattern pathway or an indication of alternative pattern pathway. We present a data-mining framework for filling holes in the pattern metabolic pathway based on protein function, prosite scan and protein sequence homology. Using this framework we suggest several fillings found with the same EC notation, with group neighbors (enzymes with same EC number in first three positions, different in the fourth position), and instances where the function of an enzyme has been taken up by the left or right neighboring enzyme in the pathway. The percentile scores are better when closely related organisms are mapped as compared to mapping distantly related organisms.

High Mass X-Ray Binary Stars (HMXBs) are stars that contain one early-type main sequence or giant star and one of a black hole, neutron star or white dwarf. HMXBs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are instructive to study because both galaxies are metal poor in compari- son to the Milky Way and they are fairly transparent to both optical and X-ray radiation. This allows a more complete study of the whole population, without the biasing effects of gas and dust that occur in our own Galaxy. The objective of this study was to find the periods of HMXBs in the LMC and SMC with known optical counterparts in the dataset acquired by the Robotic Optical Transient Search Ex- periment telescope. Two possible orbital periods were found for the objects XTE J0055-724 and RX J0101.3-7211 of 1724 days and 478 days, respectively. Continued observations are recommended to conrm the two periods.

The scalar tensor theory of gravitation is constructed in D dimensions in all possible geometries of spacetime. In Riemannian geometry, theory of gravitation involves a spacetime metric g with a torsion-free, metric compatible connection structure. If the geometry is non-Riemannian, then the gauge theory of gravitation can be constructed with a spacetime metric g and a connection structure with torsion. In non-Riemannian theory, connections may be metric compatible or non-metric compatible. It is shown that theory of gravitation which involves non-metric compatible connection and torsion, can be rewritten in terms of torsion-free theory. It is also shown that scalar tensor theory can be reformulated in Einstein frame by applying a conformal transformation. By adding an antisymmetric axion field, the axi-dilaton theory is studied in Riemannian and non-Riemannian geometries. Motion of massive test particles is examined in all these geometries. The static, spherically symmetric and stationary, Kerr-type axially symmetric solutions of the scalar tensor and axi-dilaton theories are presented. As an application, the geodesic elliptical orbits based on a torsion-free connection and the autoparallel orbits based on a connection with a torsion, are examined in Kerr Brans-Dicke geometry. Perihelion shift of the elliptical orbit is calculated in both cases and the results are compared.